Chapter 128
Chapter 128
I staked everything on this punch.
And it left Feng Lishu reeling.
One moment, she was still hurling threats at me, digging into the back of my shoulder blade, and calling me “Linu” over and over to break me mentally. The next, her mouth was full of blood.
Words could become law, but only when backed by magic would a spoken command carry supernatural power.
My punch drew blood and broke Feng Lishu’s spell.
Her hold over me vanished instantly.
The next moment, Feng Lishu wiped the blood from her mouth. Enduring the pain, she pressed a finger toward the space between her brows again.
She meant to use the same trick twice.
But I had already bitten open the middle finger of my left hand. Forming a Sword Finger with my right, I pressed upward from the base of the finger, then turned my palm downward.
Below me lay the Zhu Pan River, its waters surging endlessly. The surrounding air was also thick with moisture.
The instant I aimed my Sword Finger at Feng Lishu, she finished forming her hand seal.
The word “Linu” had barely left her lips when a Dragon-Shaped Water Ripple appeared out of thin air. A piercing Dragon roar not only shattered Feng Lishu’s voice, but also snapped the iron chain on one of the Human-Skin Red Coffins below.
Once the chain broke, a long crack split across the lid of that Human-Skin Red Coffin. A nauseating corpse stench poured from within, while the other eight Human-Skin Red Coffins began trembling violently.
The Black Coffin in the center gradually began to sink, only for the black energy swirling around it to prop it up and force it afloat once more.
Dou Zhile had said that Dou Zhifu took a shortcut in an attempt to stand out, which resulted in his master expelling him from the sect.
Now it seemed he truly hadn’t mastered his craft.
Otherwise, why had none of the other eight Human-Skin Red Coffins cracked? Why was his newly made Human-Skin Red Coffin the only one that had?
Luckily for us, his skills had been lacking. Otherwise, we would never have found a weak point in the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation so easily.
With a breach opened in the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation on my side, Senior Sister’s Thousand-Soul Banner snapped violently in the Yin Wind. Vast swaths of Souls were ensnared by the banner, while the skull at its center seemed about to come alive, opening its mouth to devour every one of the captured Souls!
On the riverbank, the figures who had been facing the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation with the devotion of pilgrims finally panicked and joined the battle.
Yet every last one of them targeted Senior Sister.
No matter how formidable Tang Xun’s people were, they were still no match for these animal immortals, who had cultivated for years and long since become spirits.
Just when it looked as if Tang Xun was about to be overwhelmed, another group of people I had never seen before suddenly appeared at the Riverside and joined Tang Xun’s ranks.
Which faction was this now?
Tonight really was lively!
“Sister-in-law, watch out!”
Lord Xiao’s warning came from behind me. At the same time, I felt the scorching force of a palm strike at my back.
The moment I turned, Feng Lishu’s palm filled my vision.
Just as it was about to slam into my face, Lord Xiao met it with his own palm. The next instant, he and Feng Lishu were locked in combat.
So the force below had been brought by Lord Xiao.
Earlier, I had sent Li Qingying to ask for his help and borrow a few troops, but he had refused.
What he had wanted was probably a glorious, no-holds-barred battle just like this one.
That was simply the kind of man he was.
He had acted the same way when he went to Liu Junyan and asked Liu Junyan to take on the Sword Array in the Linghai Forbidden Zone.
Of course, the Sword Array in the Linghai Forbidden Zone and the Black Coffin in the Zhu Pan River were hardly comparable.
Roar… Crash…
A savage roar mingled with the crash of surging waves and battered my eardrums. Dense water vapor, carrying a frigid yin energy, spun into a black cyclone that closed around me.
Without Feng Lishu’s control, the power of the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation continued to weaken. My body, which had been suspended in midair, now plummeted straight toward the river.
Below me, the shattered lid of the Human-Skin Red Coffin Dou Zhifu had made was suddenly flung aside. The entire coffin resembled the gaping maw of some enormous beast, waiting for me to fall neatly inside.
I stared at the badly decomposed corpse of the girl within the Human-Skin Red Coffin. Besides nausea, I felt only confusion.
A woman with a Pure Yin Constitution who had a Coffin Nail driven between her eyebrows should have remained incorrupt for centuries, even millennia. How could her body have decayed this badly?
Aside from Dou Zhifu’s shoddy workmanship on the Human-Skin Red Coffin, was there some other factor at play?
Had the girl not possessed a Pure Yin Constitution?
No. That was impossible.
Feng Lishu had given this girl to the Bai Family. She would never make such a mistake, and the Bai Family could not possibly have neglected to verify what they had received.
That left only one possibility: the girl’s fate had not been strong enough to withstand such a sinister Formation!
Nine was the number of change, and the change it brought could be great or small.
If the girl had endured, the Formation probably would not have been broken so easily.
At its core, the problem was that the Bai Family had acted too hastily this time. They had gone into this with the mindset of gamblers.
If they had only been gambling against me, or even me and the Pawnshop together, their odds of victory might have reached ninety percent.
But no one had expected so many unforeseen variables to emerge afterward!
The Bai Family’s position was looking precarious.
Still, they had one last trump card capable of turning the tables-me.
As long as I was drawn into the Human-Skin Red Coffin and filled the vacancy in the Nine-Yin Spirit-Gathering Formation, the Formation would become whole again. It might then be able to contend with Senior Sister’s Thousand-Soul Banner!
At that thought, I shouted, “Fengwu, come!”
The Longbow instantly appeared in my hand. Drawing the bowstring to its limit, I fired at the Human-Skin Red Coffin.
If I could set the Human-Skin Red Coffin ablaze or knock it out of position, I might not fall inside it.
But I was dropping too quickly. By the time the flames shot from the bow, there was less than half a meter between my body and the Human-Skin Red Coffin.
The flames plunged into the coffin, and the girl’s corpse immediately caught fire.
Ghostly green flames shot high into the air, accompanied by a foul stench. I instinctively held my breath.
At that exact moment, a hand seized the back of my clothes, arresting my fall.
I struggled to look back and discovered it was Lord Xiao.
Lord Xiao carried me over to the riverbank and set me down.
My feet had barely touched the ground, and I had yet to breathe a sigh of relief, when Lord Xiao sucked in a sharp breath. Lowering his voice, he said, “Take your people and retreat to the Pawnshop. I’ll hold them off here for a while. Hurry!”
I looked up and instantly understood why Lord Xiao had said that.
The Black Coffin had risen upright from the river.
Dark energy swirled endlessly beneath it.
Behind it stood Zhao Zixun at the head of a vast, dark mass. They were all… Ghost Soldiers.
Zhao Zixun had appeared with a contingent of Ghost Soldiers before, but their ranks had been small then, and the Black Coffin had still been under suppression.
Now, however, the Black Coffin was clearly in command.
The entire army of Ghost Soldiers behind it obeyed its orders-including Zhao Zixun.
Even more terrifyingly, as we watched, more Ghost Soldiers continued to emerge from beneath the water.
If this army of Ghost Soldiers continued to grow, it looked poised to sweep across the entire Zhu Pan River and invade Linghai.
This was the scene everyone had feared most.
And yet… it had appeared after all…